The CEO of Whiting Petroleum said earlier this month that the
maximum amount of money it could borrow may drop to $3.75 billion
from $4.5 billion as a result of the changes, according to the
Bloomberg report.

A recent
surveyby the law firm Haynes Boone LLP
meanwhilefound thatfinancial
institutions and private-equity firms expected a fall in
"borrowing base redeterminations," or the value of companies'
assets that can be posted as collateral.

Regulators from the Office of the Comptroller of the
Currency, the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corp. met with bankers in Houston earlier this month to discuss
reserve-based lending requirements, according to the
report.

The result is tougher standards for loans, potentially higher
prices for borrowers, and a quick path to Chapter 11 for
struggling companies that are pushed closer to defaults thanks to
the plummeting price of their underlying assets.